When Macs really impress you

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
24,299
A customer came into work today - I'd been speaking to him a few weeks ago about Airport Extremes and Time Capsules, as he'd been having some trouble with his TC and his Home Hub.

I'd recommended a Draytek Vigor 120 to him and he'd been having some trouble with getting it to play ball following the guide in the box.

I couldn't remember exactly what settings I'd used, so... I clicked on my home iMac (which was asleep at the time) in the Finder sidebar of my Mac at work, shared the screen, opened up Airport Utility on my Mac at home and found out how I'd set it up.

These days the act itself I suppose is not that impressive but how integrated into the OS it is, and how completely painless it is to do and how little setup it required (almost none, to be honest), never ceases to amaze me.

To make it so that would work, all I've actually actively done, is tick a box on my iMac at home. The rest was all set up when I put my Mobile Me details on the work Mac.

I can get to whatever's on the two HDDs attached to my AEBS from pretty much anywhere as well... a few years back this stuff would have been inconceivable for a non-techy home user, and now it's a piece of cake.

What little things have genuinely impressed and surprised you on Macs?
 
I can't think of one particular example like yours, but the thing that impressed me most when I bought my Mac was how quick the thing was given the specs. I'd never even used a Mac previously and it was a Christmas gift, the speed of opening up Safari, the way iTunes is so well integrated and also how quickly it boots up and shuts down. Though I must confess I never shut my MacBook down as it just seems easier to put it into sleep mode, which if I may say so works much better and is nicer than my other experiences of using sleep/hibernate on other computers.

By the way I have a feeling that this thread will soon get trashed by Apple haters. :/
 
I really like how they cost double the price of an equivalent PC trolololOLOLOL!!1!1!!


KIDDING!

I think my favourite thing is shooting things around between programs. I often have a lot of programs open at once and with hot corners set up, i can grab something, pull it to the corner (expose), hover over where i want it to go and drop it off. On my PC i have to pull windows around and arrange them. (W7 helps with being able to snap windows to the side by dragging the top bar... I like that feature)
 
How quick my Air boots and shuts down (even though sleep is my preferred method), how quick it sleeps and wakes up, how thin it is, how much more enjoyable it is to use than my W7 machine. It's just natural to use in comparison to other OSes and doesn't bother me with silly alerts and lots of small things that culminate in me despising anything else.
 
I deleted an important file the other day and realised 2 days later it was the wrong one, so instead of having a panic attack I just nipped into Time Machine and brought it back. That was the first time I ever had to use it and was very impressed by how easy and quick the whole process was.
 
Expose, and the aluminium bodies of the new MBPs have been impressive to me. I also like the long battery life and high quality screens across the range. Apple generally know where not to cut corners and it makes a big difference.
 
I got my first 13" refurb uMacbook in 2009. I was curious to see why OSX and Macs were gaining increasing popularity against windows. The main thing that blew me away was OSX in general, the drag and drop installs and that damn trackpad with its gestures, which make Firefox such a pleasure to navigate around.

A lot of folk tend to forget that its quite hard to match, let alone beat Apple for battery life on laptops.
 
I admit I was very pleased with the build quality and battery life with my MBP. OSX impressed me enough that since getting it in March I've sold my Windows desktop and laptop.
 
Someone made a good point about not being bothered with alerts, this also impressed me, I think the only thing that bothers me is the Software Update which pops up occasionally, but every time it's appeared it's offered something that I actually need, like a Java update, or a security update for OSX, not some poxy USB drivers or bloatware.
 
Stupid little things like how difficult it is to setup duplex printing (or even add an IP printer for that matter) or being able to support two identical webcams at the same time (Clearly not a huge issue but Windows couldn't do this [easily] and my Mac's could - for a mates CS project).

Most of the time there is sod all difference, but the little things is what makes OS X.
 
Adding printers/scanners/cameras. When I'm abroad working in newly set up offices with a myriad of printers/photcopiers it's brilliant being able to just plug in and go without much faff - something the PC users in the office usually can't quite hack. It also seems better at handling unreliable internet connections than a PC - also good in third world countries!
 
I spent last week at work collating info from about 50 spreadsheets. I would have killed to have Expose on my Windows machine.
 
Network printing ALWAYS works on my mac (which annoys my mum and sister a fair bit as its not consistent for them).

Integrated Raw ability was cool for other people who needed it and I kindly lent them the mac for an hour or two, followed by the line "when I get any money im buying one of these"

The track pad, screen and keyboard on my mbp are all absolute dreams to work with, made uni work much better to do. The automatic light stuff is also really nice as it tends to be right for the conditions im in with the mac :)
 
Deku said:
I deleted an important file the other day and realised 2 days later it was the wrong one, so instead of having a panic attack I just nipped into Time Machine and brought it back. That was the first time I ever had to use it and was very impressed by how easy and quick the whole process was.
Click to expand...

In a similar vein, I was finishing my dissertation a few weeks ago, and thought I'd lost a section of my research. I had the biggest panic of my life before realising time machine had saved the day.

Yes, it's initially more expensive to get a Mac, but I'd still pay that premium, if only for hardware that is designed around the OS.
 
Oh and another thing. I know it's a bit on the sad side but I don't think I've ever had anything from Apple that was a chore to open (except maybe the plastic iPod boxes, they're not so great).

I open quite a lot of electronics stuff and I've lost count how many times I've nearly slit my wrists open on that horrible vacuum sealed plastic stuff that you have to open with the biggest pair of scissors you can find, or hoover up bits of polystyrene that snaps off in your hand as you fight with the box.
 
just went round my mates who has appletv, he was showing me it and how you can flick stuff from iphone to tv. i connected to his network and within seconds it was playing music from my phone through his tv.

no setup or anything, just connect to wireless and it worked.
 
theheyes said:
Oh and another thing. I know it's a bit on the sad side but I don't think I've ever had anything from Apple that was a chore to open (except maybe the plastic iPod boxes, they're not so great).

I open quite a lot of electronics stuff and I've lost count how many times I've nearly slit my wrists open on that horrible vacuum sealed plastic stuff that you have to open with the biggest pair of scissors you can find, or hoover up bits of polystyrene that snaps off in your hand as you fight with the box.
Click to expand...

I was about to agree with you, 'til I remembered my iPad unboxing experience. The Apple packaging was fine, but impatience did give me a paper (or cardboard, I suppose) cut as I opened the shipping box too enthusiastically.

Totally worth it though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom